I love a good story. They are all around us. We can’t live without them and if you don’t think so, then consider these three sentences I heard today. “You wouldn’t believe what happened to me at the eye doctor!” “I had a ’66 Plymouth Valiant that used to do the same thing.” “Do you remember when Aldo dropped his new camera out of the window?” All human accomplishments are explained through storytelling. It is what connects us. Everybody has a story to tell and if you listen carefully, nobody’s life is uninteresting.

In 2016, in collaboration with the Northern Dutchess Community Coalition, the Senior Services Committee for the Town of Red Hook and Red Hook High School, I co-founded the Red Hook Oral History Project. It is dedicated to video recording, archiving, and distributing the oral histories of individuals residing in Red Hook and surrounding areas. By providing unlimited access to these archives we hope to create greater understanding of the richness, complexity and diversity of the people who are the bedrock of the Red Hook community. In so doing, the RHOHP honors the people who have lived and/or currently live in the Hudson Valley.

Each video is produced by teams of four high school students. We train them to research the subject of the oral history, meet with them, record their story and edit it. The students use professional broadcast equipment and are expected to conduct themselves as working professionals. One of the underlying purposes of the project is to connect young people with elders with the hope that it would provide understanding about how important these people are to our community. Given how rapidly the Hudson Valley demographic is changing, we believe that saving the heritage of the valley means saving our elders’ stories.

I am exasperated that teenagers are so enamored of technology, and how little they care about media content. They seem to have little concern about the quality of television, films, or other media. When we began producing the first videos, I had low expectations for the depth and quality of what our “field producers” would create.

Initially, they approached their assignments in very tentative ways. They were reluctant to call their storytellers or to do background research. We steered them away from technology and insisted that much of their work be done face-to-face. When we planned the video recordings, this situation did not seem to improve. We were worried about the wisdom of our approach.

However, it is a risky proposition to underestimate a teenager. When we did the recordings all of them showed great interest and empathy for their subjects. They asked insightful and often touching questions. From this point on they took complete ownership of the project. They collaborated with the great enthusiasm. They argued with me about content. Rarely were they unable to justify a creative decision. They pushed us out of the way saying, “No. I am doing it this way. It will make a better story.” They demanded more shooting and editing time. They produced four outstanding videos.

Tibbie Klose, one of the first featured elders, was in hospice care when Mia Barbuto and Jenna Dorian recorded her oral history. It is a fun, humorous and honest video. We premiered the video three months later, and Tibbie insisted on being at the showing. It was the highlight of the evening. A few days later, Tibbie’s daughter called me to let me know that Tibbie had died. She said that viewing the video initiated discussions of feelings that were enormously therapeutic to the family. She and Tibbie were re-watching the video together when Tibbie passed away.

Now tell me that stories aren’t important.

Since then we have produced eight oral histories and have plans to expand the project.

And as I write this I have had the following revelation. I am a 66-year-old semi-retired filmmaker. I am trying to teach young adults the importance of recording and archiving the stories of the local elders. I may have it backward. These teens are teaching me.

Michael Yonchenko is co-founder and executive director of the Red Hook Oral History Project. You can see the videos here: https://pojonews.co/2Asjyc1